Spice and Wolf book in English

Dejitaru Ryuu · 2009-12-17T21:20:44-01:00

Yenpress has released The first book of Spice and Wolf However they already screwed it up with the cover already way before the release. Original Cover Spoiler: New cover Spoiler: It really did piss of the fans if you read all the posts on their site. They did come with a solution... in a LIMITED edition jacket for the book. Well, Spice and Wolf has definitely been the hot button issue on the site ever since we unveiled the new cover a couple of months back. Reaction among fans was immediate and opinionated, and I promised at the time that we would look into a possible solution for those fans who felt that they simply couldn’t do without the original cover art. It’s taken some time, but I wanted to thank everyone who bore with us while we worked through the approvals and notifications necessary to put our plan into action. I’m very happy to report that the behind-the-scenes machinations have been resolved, and we can now fill you in on what we’ve come up with! In order to provide fans with an option to obtain the Spice and Wolf novels with the original light novel cover art, we have decided to do a special limited print run dust jacket (already under way) that we will offer for free to our online retailers. Those online retailers who choose to participate in this offer will be shipped the flat (uncreased) jackets to make them available at no additional charge to anyone ordering copies of the novel through their sites. This is strictly a voluntary offer being communicated now to our online retail partners, so be sure to verify participation with your retailer of choice when placing your orders if you are interested in receiving the jacket. As we’ve said in the past, our customers are truly important to us. We do listen to your feedback and make every possible effort to insure that you are happy with our offerings. While I am quite certain that not everyone will be satisfied with this solution for one reason or another, we are pleased to have been able to make these additional efforts on behalf of our Spice and Wolf fans, and we do not doubt for an instant that you will enjoy the book. but then again... Light novels have a short but checkered history in the U.S. market. Conventional wisdom holds that they don’t sell — that it cannot be done. I have to say, though, that I’m just not convinced. What is a light novel, really? It’s a novel. It’s a book with spiffy illustrations. Sure, there are some distinct challenges when it comes to positioning these books in our market, but ultimately there are a lot more readers of novels out there right now than there are readers of manga and comics. That’s a huge potential audience, and we really want to help our novels realize that potential. These are great stories, and we’re proud to be introducing them to whole new readership. Of course one of the main challenges we face is with presentation. We love the original designs of the novels we’ve licensed from Japan. Love them to death! The unfortunate reality we face, though, is that these designs that we adore, while they work brilliantly in markets where manga is ubiquitous, tend not to be impactful with more general audiences here — and we want everybody to enjoy these books! So the challenge we have to undertake is to come up with new cover designs for these fantastic books in hopes of garnering for them the readership they deserve.

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g-money

14 years ago

My point was that you were arguing and nitpicking things that were not focus of my post. Also, your use of "mainstream" and "general audience" and a lack of definition or clarification in my eyes weakened your argument. I don't think your pronoun usage clearly indicated what they were referring too, and the two terms put together seemed to create a contradiction with your current statement ^ and your previous one (page1). But, as you've put it, it's out of your system and I'll leave it at that. Normally I wouldn't be this sarcastic while debating someone if I didn't feel that this was a personal attack rather than a reasonable argument.

And I did check my local Barnes&Noble bookstore for Spice and Wolf, and it was located in the Sci-fi/fantasy section new releases. The irony is that the bookshelf opposite of the bookshelf holding Spice and Wolf is the manga section. I was thinking about buying it, but I figured that I have the anime, and I'll stick with that. Picked up a copy of Dance in the Vampire Bund volume 6 today while I was there. (Just released today)

I'm glad to entertain you, ZeroOBK. If you need a debating partner, I'm usually available.

Dejitaru Ryuu

14 years ago

the second novel comes out this month.

this time however it has the manga style cover and the jacket is the "realistic" one. don't know how to say it.

Also Yenpress as released the first manga of Spice and Wolf in April. The second one should be released somewhere in July

umnut

14 years ago

The new cover SUCKS MAJOR ASS!!! That's what happens when they try to "americanize" everything.

Dejitaru Ryuu

14 years ago

umnut wrote...

The new cover SUCKS MAJOR ASS!!! That's what happens when they try to "americanize" everything.

hence the reason they now publish the books with the original cover and the jacket as the American verison. unlike they did with the first one.

jomonoe

14 years ago

Well I guess this is what localization is. Making something that is too exotic comprehensible for the market at hand. Of course, I come from an Asian background so I find the original to be the most appealing. The everyday novel reader, though, may feel that the original cover turns them off due to unfamiliarity. After all, people are creatures of habit.

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